Mary Carroll is a Senior Producer on the Today FM show The Last Word with Matt Cooper. She tells us about her regular commute from Inchicore to the city centre.
Tell me about your usual journey to work.
It depends, we work two shifts - 9 to 5:30 or half 10 to 7, but I also have the kids to drop. My actual commute is only from Inchicore into Digges Lane in town, and I'm usually on a bike.
I scoot in in about 15 minutes and that's partly why we wanted to live so close - I don't want to spend most of my time commuting, I think I'd hate it.
I have two kids - Kitty who's four and Sé who's one-and-a-half, so often I'll drop Kitty down to school, then come back home and put Sé on the back of the bike and cycle down to his childminder. I'd drop him off and then fly into town.
Have you always cycled to work?
Always. Even when I was a kid, I cycled to secondary school. I can't stand sitting in traffic. I get the bus at times, say if it's a particularly wet day, but cycling is handy and the quickest way, guaranteed, to get into work.
How safe do you feel on the bike?
I don't seem to be fazed by the dangers of it as some other people. There wouldn't be cycleways all the way into town, but I feel I'm used to it.
Cyclists can get a bad rap, which I think can be unfair. There are always bad drivers, bad pedestrians, bad cyclists. You just need to take care.
Do you listen to anything on your commute?
No, you have to keep your wits about you. I can't do that on the bike, it would be too dangerous. Even the cycle paths are desperate at times with people parked in them.
What's the easiest commute you've ever had?
I've always been really lucky - even when I was living at home in Clonskeagh, school was a five-minute cycle away. Then when I moved out of home it was to Harold's Cross and I've always been working in Digges Lane, pretty much. That's why I'm so reluctant to change it!
We could move out of Dublin and get a bigger house, but I couldn't spend an hour and 15 minutes commuting to work.
